7 million student-loan borrowers will soon need to take action — or be put on the most expensive repayment plan
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Student-loan borrowers on the SAVE plan will soon receive notices with a deadline to transfer to a new repayment plan.nirat/Getty Images
Jun 11, 2026, 5:15 AM ET
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More expensive student-loan payments are coming.
Beginning July 1, the Department of Education will notify student-loan borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan of their deadline to transfer to a new repayment plan. It follows President Donald Trump's elimination of SAVE, which gave borrowers cheaper monthly payments and a shorter timeline to debt relief.
An email SAVE borrowers received, reviewed by Business Insider, said that borrowers who do not select a new plan in the 90-day timeframe they are given will automatically be placed in either the standard repayment plan or the new tiered standard plan, both of which are more expensive than the existing income-driven repayment plans.
"Your monthly payment amount will most likely go up if you are enrolled in either of these plans," the department's email said.
The tiered standard plan, which will become available after July 1, would require borrowers to repay their loans in full over a period based on the amount of their principal balance, with a minimum payment of $50 a month. The new Repayment Assistance Plan, also available in July, would calculate a borrower's monthly payment based on their adjusted gross income. It's more expensive than existing income-based plans, which set aside a portion of a borrower's monthly expenses and calculate their monthly payment based on the lower amount.
Borrowers are not required to take any action until they receive notices informing them of their deadline to transfer to new plans. Some have already said that their payments are projected to surge by hundreds of dollars on RAP, which is intended to be the more affordable option.
Over 60 Democratic lawmakers recently urged the Department of Education to place SAVE borrowers in the cheapest plan, rather than the most expensive one, if they do not take action before their given deadline.
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"To mitigate the potentially devastating financial impact of this transition, ED should automatically enroll every borrower currently in the SAVE forbearance in the lowest cost repayment plan currently available to that borrower," the lawmakers wrote.
In addition to the new repayment plans, other provisions of Trump's "big beautiful" spending legislation will soon go into effect, including new borrowing caps on advanced degrees and changes to the amounts parents can borrow for their kids' education.
Nicholas Kent, the department's under secretary, said in an April press release that the "changes will ensure students continue to have the access that they need for federal student loans, while helping prevent borrowers from taking on unmanageable debt levels that they may never be able to repay."
Have a story to share about student loans? Contact this reporter at [asheffey@businessinsider.com](mailto: asheffey@businessinsider.com) .
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Ayelet Sheffey is a senior reporter at Business Insider covering education, student loans, and the federal workforce. She has extensively covered issues related to student debt and higher education specifically, appearing on shows including C-SPAN, CBS News, and SiriusXM, to discuss those topics. She graduated from American University in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. You can reach her via email at [asheffey@businessinsider.com](mailto: asheffey@businessinsider.com) or message her securely on Signal at asheffey.97. You can also find her on LinkedIn, and on Reddit at the username u/higheredjourno.Top articles on her expertise:They were told their private student loans were paid off. Then they were sued.Inside the high schools trying to break America's college obsessionThe American brain drain has arrived. Just asked these scientists.The 'new predators in higher education'For Gen Alpha, learning to read is becoming a privilegeWhy paying off your student loans won't get easier anytime soon
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